Geotopography

Geotopography pursues the objective of describing the real landscape. Based on the spatial reference system, the basic objects of the Earth’s surface such as settlements, traffic networks, vegetation, water, landforms and the borders of political and administrative units with names and other descriptive information covering the needs for the entire territory of the Federal Republic of Germany are recorded by the State surveying authorities and managed in digital form in the databases of the nationally standardised Authorative Topographic-Cartographic Information System (ATKIS®). Based on these landscape objects and the height information of the terrain, topographic maps in various scales which are available in both digital as well as paper form are derived using cartographic preparation. The data provided by ATKIS® is enhanced by orthophotos (straightened aerial photographs) which are also available in digital and analogue form.

The geotopography products are updated regularly and are intensively used in administration, the economy and in science.